Shake and Fake: the Role of Interview Anxiety in Deceptive Impression Management

Deborah M Powell,Joshua S Bourdage,Silvia Bonaccio

doi:10.1007/s10869-020-09708-1

Deborah M Powell, Joshua S Bourdage + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-020-09708-1

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Abstract

We investigated whether anxiety about self-presentation concerns during interviews (i.e., interview anxiety) is associated with applicants’ use of deceptive impression management (IM) tactics. We examined the relationship between interview anxiety and deceptive IM, and we examined whether the personality traits of honesty-humility and extraversion would be indirectly related to deceptive IM through interview anxiety. Participants (N = 202) were recruited after an interview for a research assistant position. Interview anxiety scores were positively related to deceptive IM. Furthermore, there was evidence of a negative indirect effect of honesty-humility on deceptive IM, via overall interview anxiety. Also, extraversion was indirectly associated with deceptive IM through interview anxiety. Results suggest that deceptive IM can be used as a protective mechanism to maintain self-esteem or to avoid the loss of rewards. This paper is the first to examine the role of interview anxiety in interview faking.

Highlights

We investigated whether anxiety about self-presentation concerns during interviews is associated with applicants’ use of deceptive impression management (IM) tactics
The strongest relations with overall deceptive IM were with social (r = 0.30, p < .001) and communication anxiety (r = 0.26, p < .001), all forms of interview anxiety significantly correlated with overall deceptive IM
Regarding the correlations between personality and interview anxiety, honesty-humility was negatively related to overall interview anxiety (r = − 0.15, p = .03), as was extraversion (r = − 0.38, p < .001), suggesting that applicants higher in these personality traits report experiencing less interview anxiety

Summary

Introduction

We investigated whether anxiety about self-presentation concerns during interviews (i.e., interview anxiety) is associated with applicants’ use of deceptive impression management (IM) tactics. Interviewees may attractively describe past accomplishments, compliment the interviewer, or defend negative aspects of their record; in some cases, they may even stretch the truth or fabricate their past experiences or fit with the organization (Levashina & Campion, 2007) These latter interview behaviors, such as exaggerating or fabricating experiences or fit, have been labeled interview faking, or deceptive impression management (IM). One important theoretical proposition that could inform our understanding of deceptive IM is that IM may be a self-protective mechanism (Schlenker & Leary, 1982) In accordance with this idea, it may be that concerns about being able to create the desired impression, or about being perceived negatively, are sources of anxiety for some interviewees. We begin with a discussion of how and why interview anxiety and IM may relate to one another

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